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INDIANA UNTVEESITY STUDIES 



Ewing; and George R. C. Sullivan, ex-postmaster, and member of 

 the legislature. 



The Corydon branch had $4,053 in specie, $13,897 in notes 

 in circulation, $3,590 on deposit \vith $42,007 debts. On its board 

 are many names well known in early Indiana history: A. Brandon, 

 Dennis Pennington, R. C. Boon, John Depauw, Davis Floyd, Joshua 

 Wilson, John Tipton, Joseph Merrill, James Kirkpatrick, Jordan 

 Vigus, and Benjamin Adams. 



The Brookville branch reported paid in capital $14,009; deposits 

 $8,630; debts owing to it $95,319. Its directors were John 

 Test, Enoch D. John, Wihiam H. Eads, James Noble — United 

 States Senator, Robert John, John Allen, Nathaniel Gallion, Joseph 

 Brackenridge, John Jacobs, James Backhouse, and Noah Noble, 

 who was later governor of the state. Vevay had specie to the 

 amount of $1,997; capital $4,651; paper in circulation $23,783; 

 debts owing to it $72,287. 



Comment on this kind of banking is not necessary. Some of 

 these men were dishonest — embezzlers; the forty per cent dividend 

 was outright theft; but it was just as certain that, taken as a whole, 

 these directors were the leading men of the state. They soon realized 

 that the Bank was a failure. The members of the new board, 

 elected on the first Monday in March, 1822, were nearly all of 

 Brookville. William Eads headed the committee to wind up the 

 affairs of the bank. He gathered up what was left in the way of 

 furniture and securities, and prepared to meet the creditors, the 

 circuit court, and the Secretary of the Treasury. 



Senator James Noble undertook to settle the difficulty between 

 the Bank and the United States. In place of the state bonds, 

 which were returned to the Bank, he accepted private notes and 

 mortgages. The Bank had $168,453 of United States money 

 on deposit. The property of the "Steam Mill," and the property 

 of Judge Parke and others in Vincennes, passed to the United 

 States, together with a large number of lots in Brookville. The 

 amount of real estate shows what the Brookville stockholders lost 

 in the Vincennes Bank. 



At the June term of the Circuit Court of Knox county a quo 

 warranto suit brought the Bank to an end. The jury found that the 

 Bank had violated its charter in several particulars, and the judge. 



Western Sun, January 12, 1822. 



•1 Am. Sta. Pa., Fin., V, 104, fV. Congress investigated the alleged "Financial Mismanagement" 



of Secretary Crawford but did not criticise anyone. The report of this investigation shows the 



attempt of Crawford to build up a political machine to control the Congressional caucus. He 



would have controlled Indiana had the Vincennes Bank not failed. 



